Leon Trotsky, in " Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight
It, "
“It would be so much easier for us, if there appeared on the
world scene somebody saying "I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black
Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares". Life is not that simple.
Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to
uncover it and point our finger at any of its new instances - every day, in
every part of the world.”
― Umberto Eco, Il fascismo Eterno
“ but we know. and have always said, that the bourgeoisie is
attached to fascism. The bourgeois and fascism stand in the same relation to
each other as do the workers and peasants to the Russian Communist Party.”
― Antonio Gramsci, Selections from Political Writings:
1921-1926
“Abraham Lincoln, said, just before his assassination:
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes
me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . Corporations have been
enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power
of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the
prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the
Republic is destroyed.”
― Jack London, The Iron Heel
How to Spot a Fascist is a collection of three distinct yet
profoundly thought-provoking essays on freedom and fascism. 'Ur-Fascism'
examines fourteen essential characteristics of fascism. Like the great German
author Gunter Grass, Eco was briefly a young fascist. Unlike Grass[1]
Eco was not vilified for it. When Mussolini was at the height of his power, Eco
was a young child lacking the knowledge and capacity to grasp the criminal
character of the organisation he was associated with. He Writes in “Ur-Fascism:
“In 1942, at the age of ten, I received the First Provincial
Award of Ludi Juveniles (a voluntary, compulsory competition for young Italian
Fascists — that is, for every young Italian). I elaborated with rhetorical
skill on the subject “Should we die for the glory of Mussolini and the immortal
destiny of Italy?” My answer was positive. I was a smart boy.”
Umberto Eco was undoubtedly one of the greatest writers and
historians of the 20th Century. If he were still alive during this
modern period of history, he would not have hesitated in calling the latest incumbent
in the White House a fascist. Donald
Trump fits most of the criteria cited by Eco in his 1995 essay.
Eco writes “If we still think of the totalitarian
governments that ruled Europe before the Second World War we can easily say
that it would be difficult for them to reappear in the same form in different
historical circumstances. Suppose Mussolini’s fascism was based upon the idea
of a charismatic ruler, on corporatism, on the utopia of the Imperial Fate of
Rome, on an imperialistic will to conquer new territories, on an exacerbated
nationalism, on the ideal of an entire nation regimented in black shirts, on
the rejection of parliamentary democracy, on anti-Semitism. In that case, I
have no difficulty in acknowledging that today the Italian Alleanza Nazionale,
born from the postwar Fascist Party, MSI, and indeed a right-wing party, has now
minimal connection to the old fascism. In the same vein, even though I am much
concerned about the various Nazi-like movements that have arisen here and there
in Europe, including Russia, I do not think that Nazism, in its original form,
is about to reappear as a nationwide movement.”[2]
While Eco has several brilliant insights into Italian
fascism, his work also has significant weaknesses. One of which was his
blindness towards the betrayals of Italian Social Democracy. As Leon Trotsky
points out, “ Italian fascism was the immediate outgrowth of the betrayal by
the reformists of the Italian proletariat's uprising. From the time the First
World War ended, there was an upward trend in the revolutionary movement in
Italy, and in September 1920, it resulted in the seizure of factories and
industries by the workers. The dictatorship of the proletariat was a real fact;
all that was lacking was to organise it and draw from it all the necessary
conclusions. The social democracy took fright and sprang back. After its bold
and heroic exertions, the proletariat was left facing the void. The disruption
of the revolutionary movement became the most critical factor in the growth of
fascism. In September, the revolutionary advance came to a standstill, and
November already witnessed the first significant demonstration of the fascists
(the seizure of Bologna)[3]
Leon Trotsky was one of the first Marxists to not only
define what exactly Italian fascism was, but also to warn of the danger it
represented to the Italian and world working class. One of his earliest
attempts to define fascism was in November 1931 when he wrote a letter to a
friend titled "What is Fascism”. He wrote,
“The Fascist movement in Italy was a spontaneous movement of
large masses, with new leaders emerging from the ranks. It is a plebeian
movement in origin, directed and financed by big capitalist powers. It issued
forth from the petty bourgeoisie, the slum proletariat and even to a certain
extent, from the proletarian masses. Mussolini, a former socialist, is a
“self-made” man arising from this movement. The movement in Germany is primarily
analogous to the Italian movement. It is a mass movement, with its leaders
employing a great deal of socialist demagogy. This is necessary for the
creation of the mass movement.
The genuine basis is the petty bourgeoisie. In Italy, it is a
significant base, comprising the petty bourgeoisie of towns and cities, as well
as the peasantry. In Germany, likewise, there is a large base for Fascism. In
England, there is less of that base because the proletariat is the overwhelming
majority of the population; the peasant or farming stratum is only a relatively
insignificant section. It may be said, and this is true to a certain extent,
that the new middle class, the functionaries of the state, the private
administrators, etc., etc., can constitute such a base. However, this raises a
new question that needs to be analysed. This is a supposition. It is necessary
to explore just what it will be. It is essential to foresee the Fascist
movement growing from this or that element. But this is only a perspective
which is controlled by events. I am not affirming that it is impossible for a
Fascist movement to develop in England or for a Mosley or someone else to become
a dictator. This is a question for the future. It is a far-fetched possibility.
To speak of it now as an imminent danger is not a prognosis but a mere
prophecy. To be capable of foreseeing anything in the direction of Fascism, it
is necessary to have a definition of that idea. What is Fascism? What is its
base, its form and its characteristics? How will its development take place?”
This short volume, 'How to Spot a Fascist,' was republished
in 2019 and is an essential contribution to understanding today's fascist
movement, led by Donald Trump. Eco was an insightful and compassionate writer,
but he did not live to see the fascists come back. In the same year as Eco’s collection
of essays, Christoph Vandrier’s book Why Are They Back was published by Mehring
Books. As Vandrier’s recounts in the book after 81 years after the fall of the
Third Reich, the neo-Nazi right has become a major political force in Germany. The
book provides a valuable lesson in how to fight today's fascists by learning
the lessons of the past.
[1]
Günter Grass and the Waffen SS-https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/05/gras-m04.html
[2]
Ur-Fascism Umberto Eco: June 22, 1995 The New York Review of Books theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism
[3]
How Mussolini triumphed-www.wsws.org/en/special/library/fascism-what-it-is-how-to-fight-it-leon-trotsky/02.html
